Saucon Valley, Moravian Academy start strong
Panthers girls, Lions boys both in second place after first session
With District 11 diving having been completed last weekend, the swimmers jumped into the pool Friday for the first of four sessions.
Among the local schools, Saucon Valley’s girls finished the opening session in second place in the team competition and Moravian Academy stands in second among the boys teams.
The girls 50-yard freestyle was the closest event of the day and turned out well for Saucon Valley’s Julia Cort, who took gold, besting Notre Dame-Green Pond’s Donja Tripp by just 00.02. The bronze medal went to Blue Mountain’s Victoria Ellex, helping the Eagles to lead in the team score after the first session.
“I knew the girl that won it last year graduated, so I have really been working for this and practicing a lot and I am always ready to bring it,” said Cort, who finished with a silver medal in the 50-freestyle last year. “There is definitely a lot of competition, and it was a close race and I am glad that I put in the extra work because I think it made a difference.”
Cort was the Panthers’ only gold medalist in the session, but their depth and ability to pick up points by having multiple finishers in events made the difference. They will come into Day 2 trailing Blue Mountain 224-144 in the team competition.
Moravian Academy picked up its lone individual medal in the boys 200-yard IM when
Oliver Ritchey won gold with a comfortable cushion of nearly nine seconds over Allentown’s Central Catholic’s Gavin Mahon. The Lions also picked up a silver medal in the 200-yard medley relay when their team of juniors Grayson Bucher and Xavier Zumba, sophomore Nathan Pellegrino and senior Sebastian Malaver finished with a time of 1:47.31.
Central Catholic also used depth on its boys team to pick up points. Mahon, a freshman,
had a big day for the Vikings as he picked up silver in the 200-yard Individual Medley and bronze in the 100-yard butterfly. Teammate Nick Janis finished third in the 50-yard freestyle where Blue Mountain’s Noah Powers set a district record with a time of 20.72 to collect gold. Janis was just 01.99 behind Powers in the event.
Salisbury had a pair of swimmers take the top two spots in the girls 200-yard freestyle as Phoebe Ballek captured gold with a time of 1:57.67 and teammate Olivia Amorim finished with a time of 1:59.11 to take silver.
“I had good motivation and good competition, and my taper went really well, so I was pretty confident and ready for this coming into today,” said Ballek, who has been competing against Amorim since the two were in fifth grade. “We have gone back and forth for years, so we have been almost lifelong competitors. Every time that I swim next to her I seem to do pretty well and I think it’s because we push each other.”
Amorim came back to take gold in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:00.50, finishing 01.37 seconds ahead of Pottsville’s Adalia Laselva.
“I knew coming in that I wasn’t going to be able to think about two races at the same time, so I focused on the 200-freestyle first and then turned my attention to the butterfly,” said Amorim. “Usually, I am more of a 200-freestyler, and this is my other event. I thought coming into the year that the 200-freestyle was going to be my event this year and I wasn’t even sure I would be doing the butterfly for the whole season.”
The 2A competition resumes Saturday with both the 100 and 500-yard freestyle events, the 100-yard backstroke and breaststroke and the 400-yard freestyle relay.
The 3A swimmers were to compete in sessions Friday night and Saturday afternoon.
Swimmers who win gold medals are given automatic berths into the PIAA swimming championships, which will be held March 13-16 at Bucknell University in Lewisburg.
Other swimmers will have to wait to see if their times are good enough to earn at-large bids into states.